Jcc House Fire Victim Army Officer, Veteran

April 07, 1995|By PATTI ROSENBERG Daily Press

JAMES CITY (COUNTY) — William M. Nichols' role on the world's stage was larger and more glamorous than most.

In the decades before a fire took his life earlier this week, he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, helped rebuild post-World War II Berlin, earned a Bronze Star in Korea and rose to the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army.

He graduated from Harvard Law School and went on to become a legal adviser to four presidents, according to his family.

Nichols, 72, was killed in a fire at his Kingsmill home Tuesday night. Police delayed releasing his name until Thursday, when dental records confirmed his identity.

The fire started in his bedroom. A preliminary autopsy showed that he died of smoke inhalation, said Investigator Mike Spearman of James City County police. James City County Fire Chief Richard Miller said that the cause of the fire is still being investigated but that it isn't regarded as suspicious.

Nichols' children gathered Thursday at his house at 100 Holdsworth Road, where the American flag in front had been lowered to half-staff.

"He really accomplished a lot in his life," said one of his daughters, Kathleen Miller. He was a self-made man whose father managed a lumber camp and died when Nichols was 9. He went to work as a hotel bellboy at the age of 13 to help support his family.

He played a part in many of the great social events of his time, according to his daughters and Laura Spear, his caretaker for the past few years. But he was also kind, thoughtful and unassuming, they said.

Miller recalled how her dad still liked telling stories about hunting in the swamps as a child in Alabama.

Spear started crying when she remembered his generosity the time she was stuck with a veterinarian bill she couldn't afford. He asked her how much it was. She told him almost $400. He wrote her a check for $500, no questions asked, she said.

"He was so bright," Miller said. "He had this incredible diversity of knowledge, everything from yard care to government. He was an inspiration to us."

After he retired from the military, he became an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice and was involved in investigating some of the violent incidents by right-wing and left-wing activists that made headlines during the 1970s, Miller said.

From 1973 to 1982, he was general counsel in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Spear said Nichols told her that he and a handful of other men were the ones who told former President Richard Nixon it was time to resign.

"He was my best buddy. You could talk to him about anything. He had a great sense of humor," said Spear, who considered Nichols a surrogate father. "I'm going to miss him so much."